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Google Ads recommendations

Google Ads recommendations are changes that Google suggests for an account, such as a higher budget or a new bid strategy, and that you can apply or dismiss.

How it works

Google builds them from the account’s performance history, its campaign settings and trends across Google. The Google Ads API lists every type. For a store, the usual ones cover budgets, bid strategies and targets (set or lower a target ROAS), keywords and broad match, Shopping product data (add a missing GTIN, fix disapproved products) and moves to Performance Max.

You apply a recommendation or dismiss it. Through the API, you can apply it with your own values instead of Google’s. The budget type is a fix for campaigns limited by budget: it addresses a shortage of money, not payback. Which ones a store should apply: Google Ads recommendations for online stores.

Where you see it

  • Google Ads: the Recommendations page.
  • Google Ads API and scripts: the RecommendationService and AdsApp.recommendations().
  • GetProfit portal: its own advice, not Google’s, appears where a problem was found and comes together in one plan of changes. The portal applies none of it.

Example

Example store, not client data.

The tableware shop’s Performance Max campaign is limited by budget, and Google suggests a 25% higher budget: 40,000 a month becomes 50,000. At a 35% margin, the extra 10,000 has to bring 10,000 ÷ 0.35 = 28,571 of revenue to pay for itself. It brings 25,000, a marginal ROAS of 2.5. The extra gross profit is 25,000 × 0.35 = 8,750, which is 1,250 less than the extra spend.

Not to be confused with

  • Optimization score — Google’s estimate of how well the account is set to perform. Applying or dismissing recommendations raises it.
  • Auto-apply recommendations — a setting that lets Google apply the types you choose automatically.

Right and wrong readings

  • Wrong: “Google recommends a bigger budget, so the extra money will pay off.” Right: the standard budget type is for campaigns that run out of money; a budget change predicted to raise the return is a separate type in the API. In the example, the extra spend loses 1,250.
  • Wrong: “‘Add GTIN’ is a campaign setting.” Right: it points to products demoted for a missing GTIN, which is product data in Merchant Center.

Sources